FKA Twigs’s Sexual-Battery Trial Against Shia LaBeouf Delayed to 2024

FKA Twigs, born Tahliah Debrett Barnett. Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

FKA Twigs’s abuse lawsuit against Shia LaBeouf has been postponed to 2024. According to documents reviewed by Pitchfork, both parties agreed on August 29 to a continuance. The trial has since been postponed twice as LaBeouf’s “entertainment projects” and Twigs’s commitments have made it difficult to complete necessary depositions for both sides. Originally scheduled for April and then November 2023, the trial is now tentatively set for October 14, 2024. Twigs, born Tahliah Debrett Barnett, filed the lawsuit against LaBeouf in 2020, accusing the actor of “relentless abuse,” which includes assault, infliction of emotional distress, and sexual battery during their yearlong relationship. The lawsuit details an alleged instance where LaBeouf knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted disease, along with other claims that the actor would grab her “to the point of bruising,” keep a loaded gun on his bedside table, causing Twigs to fear going to the bathroom at night, and try to choke her multiple times. She also accused the actor of attacking her at a gas station and attempting to “strangle” her, according to the lawsuit.

Karolyn Pho, a stylist and LaBeouf’s former girlfriend, also makes claims against the actor in the filing, accusing LaBeouf of physical and emotional abuse, which includes an allegation that the actor began headbutting her after drunkenly pinning her to a bed. When FKA Twigs and LaBeouf failed to agree on a settlement in 2021, the case moved forward with a trial date.

LaBeouf acknowledged the allegations in a New York Times article that same year. “I have no excuses for my alcoholism or aggression, only rationalizations,” he said. “I have been abusive to myself and everyone around me for years. I have a history of hurting the people closest to me. I’m ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt. There is nothing else I can really say.” Twigs shared a vulnerable Instagram post after she sued LaBeouf in 2020, detailing why she came forward with the allegations. “My second worst nightmare is being forced to share with the world that I am a survivor of domestic violence,” she wrote. “My first worst nightmare is not telling anyone and knowing that I could have helped even just one person by sharing my story.”